If You Can’t Take The Heat ...

 

We are are already at episode 5 on season 13 of The Real Housewives of New York City, and while this season is s bit of an improvement from the last, it still feels like there is something missing, and IMO, too much has been added. This week’s episode was rather uneventful, so before I begin my diatribe, I’m just going to bullet point the so called highlights.

 

1) The women are all still gathered at Ramona’s home in the Hamptons.

 

2) RHONY alum Heather Holla! Thompson is along for the ride, and she’s been put on notice to stop talking  shit about the current cast on her podcast.

 

3) Leah is upset because her grandmother is dying and all the women pretend to care.

 

4) Luann hosts a luncheon and painting lesson at her nearby picture perfect Sag Harbor cottage which features a guest nude model. Predictably, all the horny cougars drool over the hapless (albeit barely average) dude who is apparently packing.

 

5) As with the night before at Ramona’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s themed dinner party, the conversation gets raunchy (courtesy of trashy Leah as usual) and again, prim and proper society lady Ramona feigns outrage. Leah is completely unapologetic, but this time she’s got Ebony there to support her.

 

6) Somehow the conversation turns from distasteful dinner table conversation about genitalia, to who’s more educated ... and of course race.

 

7) Ebony in quick to point out that SHE is the most educated in the group. Nevermind that fact that she hasn’t practiced law in years, is evidently broke, and is allowing herself to be used and exploited based on her skin color.

 

8) Host Luann, a former LPN, takes particular umbrage with Ebony, and tells her that she "will not be disrespected in her own home!”.  Ebony volunteers  to leave, and Lu takes her up on it by throwing her out.

 

Now onto my rant. Let me start out by saying, I officially dislike Ebony immensely, and yes, the misspelling of her name is purely intentional.  Yes, I know it's petty, but I do this when I don’t want to give a particular person any recognition, let alone promotion. For those who are not aware, cyberspace uses algorithms which track certain words, phrases, etc; and “celebrity worth” (popularity) is often measured by the number of hits their name receives (even on an irrelevant little site like this).

 

But back to the subject at hand. Poor Ebony; how else was she to turn out when her mother labeled her as "black" at birth by naming her based on the pigment of her skin.  From that moment on, Ebony would be black first, and a vital productive woman second. Maybe in her next lesson sermon, she will share with us, what it is like trudging through life with such a giant chip on her shoulder.

 

Let’s be clear; Ebony was placed on this show for only one reason; that is to school White women and teach them  how to unravel their years of privileged and unquestioned unconscious racial bias. It’s just unfortunate that we as the viewers have to witness it. Thank God for equally proud White women like Luann who isn’t afraid to call Ebony out on her bullshit (and throw her out of her house).

 

Of course there are those who are grateful that Bravo has finally burdened the cast with a proud, strong, well spoken, articulate, and clean? (thank you Jim Crow Joe Biden) black woman who is unafraid to take such clueless White women of privilege.

 

Following this week’s episode, Ebony announced that she’s taking a little break from SM. She wrote, "I want to let you know that tonight, after tonight's episode, I'm not gonna be saying goodbye, but I'm gonna be saying see you later by way of social media for about two weeks.".

 

 Ebony went on to say, "Tonight's episode and next week's episode are really intense and really important. I really want to stress that they're really important episodes, y'all. And I want you to lean into them, I want you to watch them, and I want some of y'all to watch them multiple times. I've seen, I think, tonight will be the fourth time I'm seeing tonight's episode. So yeah, do that. Lean into tonight and next week's episode, in particular.".

 

She concluded  " ... and stay with us throughout the rest of the season because as I've said on Instagram posts recently, this season is different, yeah. For those of you saying it, it's different this season. You're right. We're in a pandemic, we're in the middle of the most dynamic call to action around racial reconciliation, certainly in our generation, and we're in the heartbeat of it all in New York City … so we're doing a heavy lift here, and I'm not doing it by myself; I'm doing it with my cast mates and with the support of our network”.

 

Translation: Ebony allowed herself to be exploited and used as a commodity by Bravo, but now she can’t take the heat, so she's getting out of the kitchen. Oops, did I just inadvertently refer to Ebony as “the help”? Devil!~ .